In 790, this year was the sixth year of Tang Zhenyuan, and the Anshi Rebellion had just ended twenty or thirty years, and Tang Dezong welcomed the Buddha's bones in this year.
Charlemagne was on the Hungarian Plain at this time, waging a war against the Avars, a nomadic people from the East.
In the same year, three ships came from the coast of Dorset, southwest of the British Island, at the corner of the worldNordicof the ship, there were some people on it. The locals don't know what the three boats are for.
A ** thought they were merchants who had come to do business, and they came on horseback to see them off into the city. But he was wrongThese people were not merchants, but samurai, they turned and killed him.
This is a small thing in the world. No one knew what this little thing meant at the time.
This trivial matter, which is not worth mentioning, opened a two-hundred-year-old affairViking invasionThe Vikings began their journey of raiding, conquest, or migration as far east as the Caspian Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and Constantinople in the south, and North America as far west as possible.
And this process has had a profound impact on the history of Europe.
It has been 300 years since the Germanic people entered the Roman Empire under the drive of the Huns in the 5th century AD and then destroyed Western Rome.
At this time on the island of Britain were the Anglo-Saxons of the Seven Kingdoms, three of which were kingdomsNorthumbria, Mercia, and Wessex, flourished in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries respectively.
And the above coastal ** incident happened at the time of Mercia's prosperity, and this event opened the painful prelude to the invasion of Europe by the new northern barbarians, and Western Europe will fall intofromScandinavia, the terrible Nordic VikingsThe giants were devastated.
Three years later, the North East of EnglandLindisfarneOutside, a terrifying dragon Viking ship appeared. The Vikings arrived in their warships and launched against the islandSt. Cousbert Monasteryof carnage and looting.
As we mentioned earlier, much of Europe's classical civilization was preserved in Irish monasteries after the Germanic invasion and then extended to monasteries in the British Isles.
The most prominent and profound thinkers in Europe at the time were in the monasteries of the British Isles, such as those who were presiding over the Cultural Revival at Charlemagne's courtAlcuin。The monks of the British Isles took on the responsibility of missionary missions to the foreign races on the European continent.
The monasteries of the British Isles also amassed considerable wealth, which was valued by the Vikings.
The monastery of St. Cuthbert was sacked, and many monks died at the hands of the Vikings. The atrocity was so brutal that it shocked the people of the time, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recounts the attack in a mournful tone:
It was a terrible omen in Northumbria that frightened the people. They consisted of a violent whirlwind and lightning, and saw a fiery dragon flying in the air. ......On 8 June, the infidels wreaked havoc on the Catholic church in Lindisfarne, looting and killing them. ”
A chronicler wrote:
Before this pagan race rampant, nothing so terrible had ever happened in Britain. No one expected this invasion to come from the sea. ”
It was from this region that Alcuin was on his way back from Charlemagne's court.
And this attack was only the beginning, the cruel and fierce Vikings, armed with terrible battle axes and in their dragon head warships, began a terrible attack on the monasteries of England.
Their boats had a shallow draft and could not only sail the oceans, but also travel up rivers to loot monasteries in the interior of England.
The monastery was sprinkled with the blood of priests and friars, all ornaments were robbed, friars and nuns were humiliated and brutally killed, and the holiest and most solemn places in Britain were horribly devastated by the Vikings.
Not only for Britain, but also for the Carolingian kingdom of Western Europe, the Vikings also carried out extensive ravages and plunder, Europe fell into the abyss of blood and fire pain, and the common people were also brutally plundered and mutilated by the invading Vikings, and the civilians suffered the punishment brought by the Vikings in agony.
Who are these terrible northern Vikings, and why are they here?
February** Dynamic Incentive Program